Unforunately, Braben had the author of The New Kind remove the source code from his website. The Makefile and wrapper script you point to are not much use without the code. It's a shame, as TNK was perfect...

From the Galileo website news: 10.12.2003 - Ok, apparently the project is pretty much dead. Noone has been making any progress on anything in the last 6 months so I declare the project officially discontinued.

I've been checking the frontier website with considerable regularity and the page which is being linked to hasnt looked different for probably more than year?

If anyone has any real evidence about release dates or confirmation that things are happening behind the scenes at Braben's shop - I'd sure as hell like to know about it. Im surprised this post got accepted because this is not even news its unfounded fabrication.

Nick (obsessed with elite and has been hanging on for Elite 4 news for far too long)

The last "Elite-like" game I bought was Terminus. Not only did it promise an "Elite-like" game; it had a nifty (in theory( multiplayer model; a nifty (in theory) build-your-own-ship model; and was released simultaneously (as in: in the same box) for Macintosh, Linux AND pc, something I wholeheartedly wanted to support.

The actual game (including the aforementioned niftiness) was so badly executed that I was turned off to the entire genre for quite a long time.

I was wondering why the largest Norwegian newspaper was running a story on the (supposedly) imminent release of Elite4, as the pages haven't changed a bit since they released that dog-demo (about 2002?)

Now I see the same story, with the same lack of content on slashdot. What's up, nothing happening out there?

I think I'll go back to playing with worldwind or celestia (google them, you lazy person), and stop hoping for a remake of a once-great-but-sadly-mothballed-franchise.

The stars in X2 are laid out like a city grid. The prog is loaded with crappy DRM drivers (yes, DRIVERS) that can screw up a system and nuke USB drives. The acting is half-assed at best. The systems are also laid out on a horizontal plane.

Sorry, but Hardwar is (still is) a much, much better game than X2: the Threat.

Elite is still one of my fav games, and I keep it inside UAE on my laptop so I can play it anywhere. Admittedly it's a bit slow in the emulator 'cos the laptop isn't the fastest machine, but it's great none-the-less.

I can't wait to see the latest and greatest sequel to it. I don't think they'll ever be able to hold up to the quality and gameplay of the original though. As with many games, much of the design effort now goes into the graphics, sound and cut scene videos. Nowhere near as much goes into the

I had Elite for the C64 and it was extremely cool at the time because of the wireframe 3d graphics. But to be honest after the excitement of 3d wore off and the dogfights started to get a little old, I didn't see much reason to continue playing. There was no higher purpose than to just wander about the galaxy accumulating wealth. Or was there something more that I just overlooked?

I had Elite for the Amiga and that was about it. The 3D graphics were better than the C64 because they were "shaded" and filled instead of wireframe. I tried the C64 version a bit after I started the Amiga version... I didn't even know it existed until I saw the Amiga version... It was just as great - specially for such a low power machine to do such cool 3d.

It was just a cool game that never seems to wear out. It was simple, had great graphics for its time and required a little bit of skill to get past

It was a few days ago; it got rejected, I'm guessing because the main bit of information was one of those annoying registration-required articles.

Anyway, David Braben was interviewed recently by Computer and Video Games. He actually gave some details on Elite IV:

It will have first- and third-person combat in addition to the usual space exploration.

It was originally conceived as an MMOG but Braben decided against it because of what he felt were "weaknesses in the Internet infrastructure" (paraphrased). There will still be LAN-style MP in addition to the single-player, though.

A major part of the game will be the lifelike, interactive characters that exhibit group dynamics and realistic animation.

You can take a look [computeran...ogames.com] for yourself if you don't mind registering.

"It's still a long way off..." he smiles unapologetically, "but you have to understand that I have high expectations for Elite IV. I don't want to release something that's rubbish to play. It's been such a long time since the last Elite that it has to be just right - and I'm more conscious of that than anyone."

Freeform 3d play on 8 bit computers, a true milestone and the base of all trade freeform space games.
The basic gaming conepts are still used up to nowadays.
The problem was the later Elites which were bug ridden and error prone and sometimes outright horrible.
I hope the new one will not have these problems, since it faces a tough competition of really good games which already have used the same playstyle over and over again.

If you're after a spiritual sequel to Elite then you can't do much worse than check out eve online (www.eve-online.com) They're in the process of a massive content update introducing the ability for players to build, own and maintain their own stations amongst other things.

It also has a very healthy PVP element, with player alliances controlling lawless space through sheer force of arms.

I don't work for ccp (the devs) but have given over a significant portion of the last 18 months to them as a subscriber